As everyone knows, the United States Constitution is a tangible, visible document. Many see it in fact as a sacred text, holding no meaning other than that which is clearly visible on the page. Yet as renowned legal scholar Laurence Tribe shows, what is not written in the Constitution plays a key role in its interpretation. Indeed some of the most contentious Constitutional debates of our time hinge on the extent to which it can admit of divergent readings. In The Invisible Constitution, Tribe argues that there is an unseen constitution--impalpable but powerful--that accompanies the parchment version. It is the visible document's shadow, its dark matter: always there and possessing some of its key meanings and values despite its absence on the page. As Tribe illustrates, some of our most cherished and widely held beliefs about constitutional rights are not part of the written document, but can only be deduced by piecing together hints and clues from it. Moreover, some passages of the Constitution do not even hold today despite their continuing existence. Amendments may have fundamentally altered what the Constitution originally said about slavery and voting rights, yet the old provisos about each are still in the text, unrevised. Through a variety of historical episodes and key constitutional cases, Tribe brings to life this invisible constitution, showing how it has evolved and how it works. Detailing its invisible structures and principles, Tribe compellingly demonstrates the invisible constitution's existence and operative power. Remarkably original, keenly perceptive, and written with Tribe's trademark analytical flair, this latest volume in Oxford's Inalienable Rights series offers a new way of understanding many of the central constitutional debates of our time.

劳伦斯·却伯美国当代宪法学大师，1941年出生于中国上海，二战结束后随家人赴美，1966年获哈佛法学院法律博士学位，此后任教于哈佛法学院，并长期担任拉尔夫·泰勒宪法学讲座教授，2004年起，晋升至哈佛大学最高教职，卡尔．洛布校级教授。他的主要著作包括《美国宪法》、《宪法中的选择》、《阅读宪法》，《看不见的宪法》是他最新的专著。教书育人主外，却伯教授还曾在联邦最高法院代理宪法案件达34次之多，其中包括2000年的布什诉戈尔，1986年的鲍沃思诉哈德维克，被誉为“这个时代最伟大的上诉审律师”。在他的学生奥巴马当选为美国总统后，却伯还被任命为司法部“资深顾问”，负责穷人法律援助的改革项目。现己重返哈佛法学院任教。